Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge: Florida spotlight

INDIANAPOLIS – After a weekend of great competition, the 2017 edition of the Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge presented by adidas is officially in the books. But with so much on-field action and so much recruiting news coming out of the interviews, there's still plenty of digesting to be done with all the information.

Today we look at the state of Florida and the biggest takeaways that will stay with us after the event.

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Florida State commit James Cook’s choice to show up to the Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge wearing a Georgia sweatshirt was a calculated maneuver.

Of that there’s little doubt.

Cook knew what the reaction would be and did it, at least in part, to stir the pot. That said, the five-star running back sold his story convincingly.

By the time the camp ended last weekend, though, Cook had successfully sold his talking point. Florida State is still the heavy favorite to land his letter of intent, but his interest in Georgia is real. Cook recently visited the Bulldogs and is likely to go back. It seems as though UGA and USC are the only real contenders to steal his commitment.

Will Cook break his commitment to Florida State? Maybe not, but it seems more likely today than it did last week and that counts for something.

Al Blades really wants you to think he’s considering Tennessee. Al Blades really wants you to think he’s not silently committed to Miami. Al Blades really wants you to think there’s a big chance he’ll spurn his family ties and the in-state school to play in the SEC.

Al Blades is really not that good of a salesman.

The four-star defensive back spent much of his weekend in at the Five-Star Challenge attempting to convince anyone within an earshot that his recruitment is semi-open and that him landing at Miami is no sure thing. Anyone who bought it is probably also a solid target for one of those Nigerian prince email scams. Blades is entertaining and engaging, but his specialty is not creating drama.

If Blades lands anywhere but Miami, I’ll happily eat crow … and possibly a tennis shoe … or two.

Rankings are a process. Mistakes are corrected by re-ranks and thing shake out correctly more times than not. Still, it’s fine to admit a mistake and ranking Delone Scaife as a three-star months ago was a mistake. Scaife, A Miami commit, moved up to a four-star outside the Rivals250 a few weeks back, but that still probably wasn’t enough.

The performance Scaife turned in against higher-ranked prospects was impressive and proves he deserves to be one of the top 250 prospects in country. The South Florida lineman lacks ideal length, sure, but it’s becoming hard to argue with the results he gets when matched up with other elite players.

Nobody has more fun at elite events than the Florida guys. From the post-touchdown backflips to the bird noises to the mid-camp dancing to a host of them faking Nigerian accents for hours after the event, you could follow the volume to find the Sunshine State representing. This is not a break from the norm, by any stretch, but the noise is as much a Florida calling card as the use of the word “jit” to refer to somebody younger than you.

Florida’s 2017 class may be underwhelming as things stand now, but its future classes are coming together quite nicely.

That’s probably understating the point. In fact, it definitely is.

On top of the base of elite prospects it already has in the fold for 2019, top 2020 quarterback Harrison Bailey also seems to be high on the Gators. The Georgia-based standout isn’t much for the recruiting process and disdains the process of interviews with reporters and hard sells from coaches. For those reasons, it seems, Bailey could make a commitment sooner than later.

UF is seen as the clear favorite and nothing serves as the cornerstone to a class better than an elite quarterback.

Finally, for a town most closely aligned with car racing and Reggie Miller, two objectively awful things, Indianapolis was a pleasant surprise. There’s a decent downtown scene that came equipped with what seemed to be some sort of Italian street festival over the weekend.

It’s not as though I was expecting the cow town Spike Lee once described, but it’s nice when a place takes you off guard.